Fuel oil leakage detector for diesel engines



Dec. 5, 1950 w. METZGER 7 2,533,195

FUEL OIL LEAKAGE DETECTOR FOR DIESEL ENGINES Filed Sept. 23, 1946INVENTOR LEWIS W. METZGER A'T'TO RNEY Patented Dec. 5, 1950 FUEL OILLEAKAGE DETECTOR FOR DIESEL ENGINES Lewis W. Metzger, Doylestown, Pa.,assignor to The Baldwin Locomotive Works, a corporation of FennsylvaniaApplication September 23, 1946, Serial No. 698,787

4 Claims.

connections, or to defectively made parts. In

many engines, as usually designed, the leaking fuel oil may find its wayinto the crank case of the engine and mix with the lubricating oiltherein.

The effect of this admixture of fuel oil and lubricating oil is todilutethe. lubricating oil and impair its lubricating properties, therebycausing main bearings and other important working parts to burn out andnecessitating frequent replacement thereof at an expense of time andmoney. In addition, such leaking fuel oil, entering other compartmentsof the engine, creates a hazard of fire or accidental explosion. Owingto the position of said nozzle holder, the fuel inlet connections areusually made within the valve mechanism enclosure and hence suchleakages are not readily discoverable; in fact, only by periodicexaminations of said connections, involving the removal of the cover ofthe valve mechanism a enclosure, or by testing the lubricating oil inthe crankcase :can it be determined whether a leak exists in any of theconnections. As there will be as many of these connections as there arecylinders in the engine, it is seen that it is highly desirable to have,and it is an object of my invention to provide, a simple and expedientmeans for readily and easily detecting these leaks, at a point externalto the engine, and for preventing such leaking fuel oil from enteringthe engine crankcase and contaminating the lubricating oil therein. V

1' Another object is to provide improved means tocatch escaping fuel oiland divert it to an observation point outside the valve mechanismenclosure of the engine where its presence will indicate at once that aleak exists in a connection. Catching and utilizing such leaking fueloil as a leak indicator, in the manner indicated, has the furtherdesirable effect of automatically preventing such fuel oil from enteringthe crankcase of the engine and contaminating the lubricating oiltherein. I

1 A further object of my invention is to provide improved means.accomplishing the above mentioned objects, that are simple in design,light in weight, and inexpensive in construction and that will, amongother things, promptly and positively indicate the presence of leakagein any enclosed or inaccessible connection so that repairs may bepromptly instituted to prevent bearings from being burned out throughdilution of the lubricating oil by such leaking fuel oil, as explainedabove. 7

Other objects and advantages will be more apparent to those skilled inthe art from the following description of the accompanying drawing whichis a vertical sectional view through the center of the cylinder head andvalve mechanism of one cylinder of a Diesel engine employing myinvention.

In the particular embodiment of the invention which is disclosed hereinmerely for the purpose of illustrating one specific form among possibleothers that the invention might take in practice, I show in the drawinga usual fuel injection apparatus and valve mechanism of one cylinder of.a Diesel engine, comprising in the main a cylinder head I, a fulcrumbracket 2, mounted on the cylinder head, a valve lever 3, pivoted onsaid a bracket, a push rod 4, in engagement with one end of said lever,and enclosed in a loosafitting push rod tube 5, a bridge 8, positionedat the other end of said lever, valves I and 8, and valve: springs S andii], all in engagement with said bridge. The fuel injector or spraynozzle holder H is of usual design, except that it has greater length inits body in order that the horizontal extension l2 thereof, throughwhich the fuel oil is injected, will be at a greater height above thecylinder head than it is at present, This is so that the sleeve,hereinafter described, may avoid obstructions on the top of the cylinderhead. Instead of placing the high pressure fuel injection tubing I3 in avertical position and connecting it with nozzle holder I I by means of avertically disposed nozzle holder adapter, screw-threaded intohorizontal extension I2 of the nozzle holder, I dispose the fuelinjection tubing I3 in a horizontal position, as shown in the drawing,running it through recesses It, It! in fulcrum bracket 2, and connect itto nozzle holder extension I2 by means of horizontally disposed adapterconnections 15 and IE, screw-threaded respectively onto the end of saidtubing and into said nozzle holder extension, i2. Ahexagonal gland nutIT on tubing I3, holds the two adapters I5 and IS in contact with eachother by being screw-threaded to adapter I6. Except as herein mentioned,all the aforementioned parts of the nozzle holder fuel inlet connectionand 3 their arrangement with respect to each other are well-known in thefuel injection apparatus of Diesel engines of this general type and donot form any part of this invention.

Leakages of fuel oil may occur at any or all the points 58, is and 23 ofthe connection. If unimpeded, the leaking fuel oil would flow onto thetop of cylinder head i, into a recess therein, through which push rodreciprocates, into and down push rod tube 5, and ultimately into theengine crankcase to contaminate and dilute the lubricating oil therein,impair its lubricating properties and cause bearings of the engine toburn out or to be the cause of crankcase explosion.

To remedy the foregoin conditions and to utilize the escaping fuel oilas an indicator of such leakage, I surround the nozzle connection with ahorizontally disposed tube or sleeve 2!, open at its outer end. Thissleeve extends outwardly across the top of the cylinder headsufficiently for it to pass through and extend slightly beyond a hole 22in a wall or" the valve mechanism cover 23, so that the outer end ofsaid sleeve will be within view of the operator of the engine while theinner end and its nozzle connections are located internall of someportion of the engine, specifically the valve cover 23. This sleeve maybe of a rigid or flexible construction so that if flexible it can beeasily turned to avoid obstructions on the top of the cylinder head Has, for example, nut 24. Attachment of the ends of sleeve 2| toextension52 of nozzle holder H and to the wall of valve mechanism enclosure 23may be made in various ways. In the accompanying drawing I showattachment of the inner end of sleeve 2! to extension ill by means ofscrew threads 25 while a gasket .26, placed between the end of saidsleeve and a flat surface of nozzle holder 3 l, is used to insure aneffective seal of this end of the sleeve. Attachment of the outer end ofsaid sleeve to the wall of valve mechanism enclosure 23, as shown in thedrawing, is made by means of a nut 27, screw-thread ed onto that portionof the end of said sleeve that extends beyond said enclosure wall, agasket 28 on the sleeve between nut 22' and the outside of said wallserving to retain within the valve mechanism enclosure any lubricatingoil that may be thrown 01? by the rapidly moving valve mechanism. Ipreferably use a tube or sleeve, rather than a trough or other openconduit, so that this lubricating oil will be excluded from the sleeveand not thereby be mistaken for leaking fuel oil. A trough, or otheropen conduit may, however, be employed in a case where only the leakingfluid is involved. It is obvious that sleeve 25 need not be perfectlyhorizontal, but may be placed with its outer end higher or lower thanits inner end.

Operation: Fuel oil leaking from any or the points i8, L9 or 29 of aconnection is caught within the sealed end of sleeve 2i and, as itaccumulates therein, starts flowing toward and out of the open end ofsaid sleeve. The operator, seeing the now or drip at the end of thesleeve, i apprised at once that a fuel oil leak has developed in theparticula connection with which the sleeve is in engagement. He has notbeen required to remove the cover of the valve mechanism enclosure andmake an examination of the connections, as above explained, in order todetermine whether or not a leak is present, for it is only when there isa leak in such connection that oil flows or drips from the end of thesleeve.

The amount of flow or drip of fuel also apprises the operator of theextent of the leak and whether immediate repairs are advisable. Glandnut l7, being hexagonal, permits ready passage of fuel oil leaking frompoints I9 and 20.

It is seen that the escaping fuel oil, thus caught and carried, by meansof the sleeve, to a point outside the engine where its presence servesto indicate that a leak exists, cannot now flow onto the top of cylinderhead I and into the crankcase of the engine to contaminate and dilutethe lubricating oil therein. Thus, said sleeve serves a dual purpose;first, in indicating the presence and cylinder location of any leakagesand, second, in preventing leaking fuel oil from entering the crankcaseand contaminating the lubricating oil therein. Also, by drawin oil suchescaping fuel oil to a place of safety the possibility of fire oraccidental explosion is eliminated.

If the outer end of said sleeve is placed slightly lower than the innerend, the effect would be to accelerate the flow of leaking fuel oil tothe open end of the sleeve and thus to indicate sooner that a leakexists in the particular connection. Also, if the sleeve is so disposed,it is not necessary to seal the inner end of the sleeve, as fuel oilleaking from the connection onto the inclined inner surface of thesleeve is immediately carried to the open end of the sleeve by gravity.As indicated above, however, if the conduit is left open drops oflubricating oil might find their way into the conduit and mislead theoperator into believing that a leak exists in the connection. If theouter end of the sleeve is placed slightly higher than the inner end,the effect is to delay the initial appearance of the leaking fuel oil atthe open end of the sleeve until the accumulating oil in the sleeve hasreached the level of the open end thereof and has begun flowing ordripping out. In other words, there would be no indication of the leakin the connection until some time after it had started.

The sleeve may be easily and readily removed to inspect, tighten orreplace the parts of the nozzle holder fuel inlet connection in theevent that this tell-tale sleeve indicates that a leak exists. Afterremoving the cover of the valve mechanism enclosure, nut 27 and gasket28 are removed or loosened. The sleeve is then unscrewed from the nozzleholder extension 12 and pushed back along fuel injection tubing [3 untilthe parts of said connection are exposed, the said tubing being extendedsufliciently to accommodate the sleeve when so displaced, as shown inthe drawing. Assembly of the sleeve is made by taking the same steps butin reverse order.

From the disclosure herein, it is seen that I have provided a simple,reliable and eflicient means for readily and easily detecting leakagesfrom enclosed or inaccessible connections that join fluid-carryingmembers by collecting and utilizing the escaping fluid as an indicatorthat a leak exists, also, for excluding such leaking fuel oil from theengine crankcase, and for eliminatin the hazard of fire or accidentalexplosioni-n or about the engine.

It will, of course, be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of partswithout departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in theappended claims.

I claim:

1. In a Diesel engine having a nozzleholder, and horizontal injectiontubing extending through an internal portion of the enginefor connectedto said injector internally of the cover,

a sleeve surrounding said supply pipe and extending from said injectorto a point outside of the cover, and means for substantially closing theinner end of said sleeve while its outer end is open, said fuel supplypipe extending axially through the open end of said tube, wherebyleakage of fuel anywhere within said surrounding sleeve will be carriedto the open end thereof where it can be observed.

3. In an engine having a vertically extending nozzle holder located atan internal point of the engine, a fuel supply pipe connected thereto atsaid internal point, a sleeve enclosing said supply pipe, means forsealing the inner end of said sleeve at a point near the nozzle holderwhile the other end of the sleeve is open and extends to a desired pointexternally of the engine, the supply pipe extending axially out throughthe open end of said tube, whereby fuel leakage within the length ofsaid sleeve will discharge at said open end to be observed.

4. In an engine having a cylinder head, a fuel injector in the topthereof having a lateral fuel supply connection, and a passagewayleading downwardly from the top of the cylinder head for communicationnormally with the engine crank case, the combination, comprising, aconduit connected at one end to said fuel injector and extendinglaterally beyond said downwardly extending passageway and terminating inan open outer end, and a fuel supply pipe extending into said conduitthrough its outer open end and connected to said fuel injector to supplyfuel thereto, whereby leakage of fuel supplied to the injector may drainthrough the outer open end of the conduit and thereby be observed.

LEWIS W. METZGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 354,414 Harvey Dec. 14, 18861,854,190 Herr Apr. 19, 1932 2,423,181 Emery July 1, 1947

